The Range: The Tucson Weekly's Daily Dispatch

Up in Non-Smoke? Arizona Officials Want to Keep Kids From E-Cigarettes

Electronic cigarettes are becoming more popular with today's youth. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, high school students' use of e-cigarettes grew 2.8 percent in 2012. Arizona legislators, law enforcement officials and anti e-cigarette advocates recently worked to pass legislation limiting sales of the surrogate smokes to ages 18 and over. They're hoping the Arizona law might become a national model.

Dr. Sara Bode, a member of Arizona’s chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the law that took effect in Arizona in September sends an important message that e-cigarettes still deliver nicotine that impairs memory and can lead to cigarette smoking and other addictions.

Is this one case where what's good for Arizona is good for the rest of the country?

In September, Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne and 39 other attorneys general sent a letter asking the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to expand to e-cigarettes the current prohibition on advertising and marketing tobacco products to youth.

And where once it was easy for minors to buy these tasty non-tobacco products, the law is showing its teeth.

So far, 12 retailers have been fined for selling e-cigarettes to the minors, while another eight have been fined for selling minors e-hookah, another device that vaporizes nicotine, Mansur said.

We'd like to think that parent's are doing their part and explaining the potential harm that these e-cigs can do, but that involves talking to their children. I guess kids can argue that the peach and strawberry flavors are so addicting, and it's too late to quit. Do they make children's e-cigarette patches or flavored bubble gum?